Fang and Claw
by Nightheart
Summary: They were an unlikely pair, the girl and the Hollow, but in the mean streets of Hangdog they needed each other to survive. A chance encounter with the woman who has been searching for Rukia might end their partnership permanently. Renkia. Byasana.
1. Chapter 1

**I want to preface this by saying the original inspiration for this Hollow-fic is from another fanfiction written by Afrai. I tried to email her (and contact her through livejournal) to get her permission to post this unauthorized follow-up (I swear, the idea grabbed hold of me and just wouldn't let go!) but she never got back to me about it, so I'm going to assume that silence means assent. If the author of the original work wishes to contact me with regards to this, I check my email and pm's regularly. Before you read this fic (if you haven't already) please read the original work (its so precious I could just die!) so as to understand what is going on in this one. You can look up her author page easily by typing her name in the search bar or opening a new page with this link in it**

**http:/www.( )/s/3019658/1/( )Street_Rats_And_Other_Monsters **

**Take out the parentheses in order for the link to work. You should all definitely go check it out. Well, I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

They made a pretty good team, the two of them. Renji's hollow form, which had been the only form of him she had known since their first meeting, was the approximate shape of a dog, a very _large_ dog who had only gotten _larger_ over the last two years, until he was about the size of a small pony. This suited Rukia fine for she was not large herself and might have been prey to some of the other, stronger criminal elements that inhabited that district. Even the brothel-procurers that had real knives stayed the hell away from "the Hollow". He was quick and strong, and known for his innate aggressive fighting abilities. All of their worldly possessions could be loaded up onto his back in a makeshift saddle-roll, including Rukia if she was of a mind for it (and could convince Renji that she was not making fun of him by playing horsie). Renji did have one weakness though... no hands. He couldn't do things like cook his food, or wash and comb his fur, or reach out and grasp things. That was where Rukia came in. Where Renji supplied the ability to hunt (or just out and out _take_ the food he wanted by force) Rukia had the ability to build a fire and cook the food so they could eat it. She did all of the things involving hands, from setting up their traveling camp to fetching water to making sure Renji had his bath and his fur was combed, and he in turn provided warmth, protection, mobility and strength. They were a symbiosis, working together like tooth and claw to bring down larger prey. Even if they bickered, both of them were innately aware of the co-dependence of thier relationship. It was a two-person family based on necessity, but there was indeed a great deal of natural affection and deep loyalty between them as well.

So they migrated from place to place within the district, sometimes making friends with the other kids, but more often traveling just the two of them. Renji's dog-Hollow-form was eminently suited to hunting down live prey in the forests and guarding their little camp. From time to time, if they were of a mind to live in civilization for a while, they could make enough to eat a meal by putting on a street-performing act where Renji pretended to be a well-trained dog that did tricks at Rukia's command... of course that one had been _her_ brainchild and Renji didn't like it, but he couldn't argue with its success either. Naturally, he tried anyway.

"C'mon Renji! Don't be such a baby!" Rukia snapped, tugging harder on the little improvised collar she'd made for him to add realism to their act.

"I don't wanna," he grumbled back. "Can't we just go back out into the woods and hunt?"

"I said no more bunnies didn't I?" Rukia replied. "Besides, if you spend any more time out of doors, you're gonna turn feral. You've already forgot nearly once."

Renji hunched his shoulders at the reminder of one chill spring morning when he'd awoken, groggy and disoriented, to thinking of Rukia as food. What had upset him the most about the incident, besides his flickering humanity, was that Rukia, the main center of his world, had eyed him warily for the rest of the day, like he might suddenly decide to turn on her or something. Renji would gnaw off his own leg before he'd hurt her. He'd had to work pretty hard at looking his most scappily-likeable for the rest of the week; lots of tail wagging, lots of belly-rubbing, lots of go-chase-the-ball. It had been _ignominious_, and he'd resented having to act like a puppy, but eventually it had gotten him back in her good graces. She had still, however, insisted on relocating back into civilization. He never told her, or allowed himself to let on, but the change in scenery didn't help. He still _longed_ for her. He'd go off on his own and let himself starve and die of hunger before he'd ever let her get hurt though. He wanted the best for her, only the best. Right now, with his superior size and strength, and the fact that when he chose to doff the (figurative) mask of a loveable but overly large pup, Renji was a force to be reckoned with. People avoided Rukia, they avoided doing anything that might rouse the anger of her guard-dog, because they _feared_ him. Renji was large and strong and certainly a match for any who crossed his path, so he was able to protect her. Right then, he was what was best for her, but he knew deep down that it wouldn't always be so.

"I'm fine," he grumbled sullenly. "Can't we just steal it from a merchant instead? I'll even let you ride on my back for a smash an' grab."

That was another in their bag of tricks; Rukia fitted an impromptu saddle on his back and held on while Renji raced at his top speed to a merchants booth, knocked over the vendor and Rukia filled a sack with everything she could carry and then they raced off so fast that the merchant couldn't catch them.

"You know we can't afford to do that right now," Rukia rebutted firmly. "We just got into this sector and if we go running that play all the time those merchants are going to set a watch for you."

They'd had one or two close calls of that nature, one of which had actually resulted in a group of merchants managing to _catch_ Renji... and Rukia'd had to rescue him.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But do I really have ta play Scrappy the Wonder-Pup all day?" he whined. "It's embarrassing!"

"It makes good money," she replied. "And for a few hours work we get enough kan for three meals with no danger. It's a _great_ plan."

"Says you," he muttered. "You don't have to put up with everyone and their granny patting you on the head or pinching your cheeks and telling you 'what a good boy you are, who's the clever puppy!' all day long," Renji mimicked in a falsetto.

"Oh suck it up and stop complaining," Rukia said. "Now come and put your collar on like a good boy."

Renji bared his teeth at her mockingly, yawned, and stayed curled up right where he was thank-you very much. He hadn't cared for the condescension in her tone and told her so.

"Just because I look like a dog, and you make me act like one sometimes, doesn't mean I _am_ one."

"Well a stray dog's better than a stray monster," Rukia retorted.

Renji pulled himself up to his most intimidating height (which, at over chest-high on a man, did have some weight to it) and put on his most feral and scary-looking expression, the one that sent merchants and bystanders scurrying away in fear for their lives.

"I'm a monster!" he snarled at her, upping the intimidation factor. "A big, scary Hollow-monster. And don't you forget it."

Rukia looked him up and down, singularly unimpressed with his display.

"Are you done yet?"

Renji showed his teeth and growled, his eyes lighting like two live coals in his sockets. That one had never failed to make even the bravest band of criminals back down and find someplace safer to be.

"Seriously, you can stop now," Rukia said flatly. "We're wasting daylight and I heard a rumor that some really, really _rich_ woman from inside the Seireitei has been traveling around in our district. If we're lucky, we'll catch her eye and she'll leave us a big donation for our performance."

"Big money means big trouble," Renji argued, even as he submitted to being put in his collar and harness for the day.

Big money out in that district got you noticed by all the wrong sorts of people. Powerful criminal people.

"Well then we'll just go to another district," Rukia said logically. "One where people don't know us very well, like we always do."

Rukia checked the last buckle on the final strap of his harness to make sure it was neither too loose nor too tight and then pulled herself up onto his back, grabbing onto the holding loops just off his shoulder-blades.

"Sheesh, it's lucky you have me Renji, otherwise you'd have no-one to do all the thinking for you," she informed him in a superior tone.

"Shut it, or I'll dump you off my back," he grumbled. "Stupid girl."

Rukia decided not to pursue anything further since he'd woke up with such a chip on his shoulder about coming down to the city, and he already wasn't happy about his "Scrappy The Wonder-Pup" act that Rukia was making him put on. Renji liked to fight. He liked to fight and he liked to win, and he liked to be stronger and scarier than anyone else around him. Sometimes Rukia had a hard time reigning him in and getting him to see sense. She worried that one day she would loose him permanently to the Hollow within. When she looked at him, she didn't see the huge, fierce predator with sharp, cruel fangs and massive claws and a mane around his neck the exact color of freshly spilt blood... she just saw her Renji, the friend who stood by her and protected her. He was a warm fur blanket on a cold night, he was an intimidating growl when strange men looked her way speculatively, he was a fast getaway when a threat appeared, a faithful presence by her side and at her back, keeping all the wolves of the world at bay.

"Do I hafta balance a ball on my nose?" Renji whined pleadingly, even adding in a high-pitched puppy-whine that sometimes worked on her.

"While you walk on your hind-legs," Rukia confirmed firmly.

"Aww..." he mumbled, his tail lowering.

Rukia smiled to herself in amusement. He was her Renji, faithful and true.

"Hey, Rukia," Renji said quietly as he carried her out of the little camp on the outskirts of town down by the river they had made the day before.

"What?" she asked.

"What was with that dream you were havin' last night?"

She felt her figurative hackles start to rise at his question. He was coming dangerously close to skirting the privacy line, that place of silent conversations that were never spoken out loud between the two of them by mutual consent.

"Just a dream I sometimes have," she said flatly.

"You woke up three times last night," he informed her. "An' you kept tossing and turning."

Renji wisely didn't mention the tears, he knew well enough by then that any implication of weakness would mean he'd be getting his tender ears pulled.

"It's nothing," Rukia insisted, even as she leaned forward and lay her torso along his back, burying her face in the soft mane of blood-red fur along his neck and inhaling the soothing scent of fur and Renji, which to her had come to mean safety, shelter and comfort.

She sometimes dreamed of that same feeling, of being held close, sheltered and protected by someone dear to her, only to have that feeling of safety suddenly ripped away from her. On the cold winter nights and chill mornings when Renji left their safe little nest early to go fetch breakfast, when Rukia lost the warmth and comfort of his furry body, it brought to mind those dreams. It reminded her of safety lost and she was pierced by a feeling of such abandonment, like everything that was supposed to be in her world suddenly disappeared and didn't come back. It was in times like those that Rukia gasped hold of him tight around his neck like she was doing now, and clung closely to him, promising herself that, no matter what else happened, she wouldn't ever let him go.

"Renji, we'll always be together, right?" she asked him, squeezing his mane tightly to her face.

"Haaah?" he asked her, uncomprehending of her sudden mood-shift.

"No matter what happens, we'll always be together, just like we are now, right? You won't go anywhere, right?"

"Tch! Stupid Girl," he said scornfully, as he often did. "Who's gonna take care o' you if I don't? Yer too scrawney an' short ta be left on yer own."

"Well you're too dumb and handless," she retorted. "Just who do you think is running this circus?"

Renji's jaw widened in a canine grin and he said

"I can't think of anyone else that'd come near me, crazy midget, so I guess we're stuck together. Geeze, someone get this little monkey off my back."

She could hear the laughter in his voice belying the bluster and was reassured. She might often be a literal version of a burden, but to Renji, she'd never be figurative one.

"Tonight's bath night for you, don't forget," she dictated peremptorily.

Renji's tail lowered again and he made a small puppy whine.

"Can't we hold off on it?" he begged.

Renji hated bath night.

"Nope, you want to look clean and groomed to attract customers," Rukia replied firmly.

They bickered half-heartedly, as was their habit, on their way to the spot that Rukia had staked out the day before. It was a prime spot in a busy marketplace, located in an empty square at the end of two rows right near two vendors who had been well-established for years. The usual busking act had moved on to another location when Renji had plonked his enormous furry behind right down and settled in. It was rather like the old joke "where does and two-hundred pound predator sit?... Anywhere he wants to."

Rukia climbed off his back and Renji sat down beside her. She took out her busking basket for people to deposit coins in and shook her tambourine to attract attention.

"Hear ye, hear ye! Come one, come all!" she called out and Renji restrained himself from rolling his eyes as she launched into her pompous little spleil about how well trained and clever her "doggy" was.

For their opening act, they picked people out from the crowd and Renji spelled out their names by pointing to the correct characters she scratched in the dirt. People would assume that Rukia was covertly signaling him somehow of course, but they applauded and threw coins (or, more usually, pins) nonetheless. Then as the marketplace got busier, they moved on to the real money-makers, Rukia had an entire routine where she had him perform tricks to a script. Sit up, paw, dance in a ring on hind-legs, bounce a ball at the end of his nose, even jump though a hoop. He hated every minute of it because Rukia had created a script that made him sound like a dumb mutt. He understood the need for the pretense but that didn't mean he didn't resent it. The crowd loved it though, they laughed at all the little jokes she told (usually at his expense) and gasped in suspense when she lit the hoop on fire and he daringly jumped through it. Those who could afford it clapped and threw what coin they had to spare in the hat. They continued the routine for an hour or so, before Rukia called a halt for a break (and to collect their earnings).

That was when trouble started.

"Hey!" a rough, deep voice yelled at them from off to one side.

They recognized the tone, if nothing else about it. That was the sound that merchants made when young children were stealing their merchandise and they were going to chase after them and administer bloody punishment. They looked over to see one rough, thugish-looking man with a rusty, battered sword and three other men, equally thuggish, standing behind him wielding clubs.

"You can't do that here!" the lead thug yelled at them. "If you wanna perform in this market, you gotta pay for that spot. This is my turf."

"I don't see your name on it," Rukia rebutted, sneering back at him fearlessly.

Renji sized up the opponents as he rose to his feet behind her and started bristling with menace. Two of the three thugs behind the lead, gratifyingly, eyed him warily, clearly having second thoughts about the wisdom of challenging such a large and fierce-looking predator.

"Hand over the money an' we'll call it even," the lead-thug demanded.

"No-way, this is my money. I earned it, if you want money you can just work for it!" Rukia yelled back.

People, sensing an imminent fight, began to back up into a ring and some of them started making bets.

"It looks like your little pup there ain't the only one who needs to wear a muzzle little missy," The thug informed her. "I'm givin' you one last chance to hand it over like a good little girl before me an' my boys take a stick ta you. Yer little doggy ain't gonna save you."

On cue, Renji started to growl and bare his teeth.

Rukia pulled the lower lid of her eye down, stuck her tongue out at the thug and deliberately made a rude noise, followed by an even ruder gesture in his direction. The thug promptly turned red with rage at having his authority challenged and beckoned to his goons.

"Take 'em down!"

They charged in. Renji lunged in front of Rukia to intercept and the fight was on.

X X X X X X X X

"You didn't have to come today, Byakuya-sama," the soft, sweet tone of his wife said, even as she gripped the crook of his arm and smiled beatifically up at him.

"Nonsense," he assured her. "It would be foolish to allow my wife to travel in such a dangerous place alone."

"Forgetting that your wife is _from_ said dangerous place," she reminded him, even as she curled closer to his side, avoiding the noise and bustle of the busy marketplace in the afternoon. "Do you think we'll find her today?"

"I am certain we shall try," was her husband's stoic reply.

She smiled up at him in adoration.

"Byakuya-sama is indulgent of this Hisana," she informed him.

He allowed a small, private smile meant only for her.

"Always," he said softly.

Their moment was interrupted by shouts and bellows off to one side of the marketplace. The familiar sound of a fight; yells, grunts and the sound of flesh impacting flesh or wood, reached their ears as they both instinctively looked over. There was always someone fighting someone over something in outer Rukongai, and the sound of a fist fight was more common than the squabble of women and children haggling over cabbage.

"Another fight. Do these people never stop fighting in this district?" Byakuya Kuchiki noted dryly to his wife.

"To fight is to live out here," she replied philosophically. "The only ones who do not fight are those who are protected by those who do."

"No-wonder Eleventh Squadron is peopled entirely by those from Rukongai," her husband muttered.

The infamous Eleventh Squadron was well known for the quality of its muscle (and not its brain) in the Seireitei, with their kenpachi being the strongest of all the fighters, and every Reaper under him taking its cue for their leader. 'Fight' was the motto of Eleveth, as opposed to 'Noble Reason,' in Sixth.

They were about to turn and continue on their way when a loud roar caught their attention. Instinctively her husband moved to pull his wife protectively to the other side of him away from the danger. He knew that noise. It was the resonant, rage-filled roar of a Hollow.

"Byakuya-sama?" Hisana questioned him, picking up immediately on his change in demeanor.

"Stay close to me," he commanded her.

Another bellow rose up through the noise of the crowd and the press of bystanders, cheering on the fight as was their wont. Byakuya Kuchiki, Soul Reaper and Lieutenant of Thirteenth, edged cautiously closer to the site of the disturbance, wary of bringing his beloved wife within range of danger, but equally torn between doing his duty. He had come across scenes like this on more than one occasion; a Hollow edges in close to society, then goes on a rampage, destroying all in its path and eating any souls it can find. Some of the stronger thugs in the outer districts foolishly thought to make a sport of _Hollow-baiting_... said sport usually didn't last long. He would dispatch this one in the interests of keeping his wife and everyone else around them safe.

The scene that greeted him when he made it within range of the fight was not quite what he expected, however. For a moment he stared in shock. The Hollow in question was not a massive, bone-masked monster that he was usually faced with, but was instead... _furry_. It was even sort of cute, if one ignored the way he crunched down on one offending thugs arm, snapping it like a man would split a chicken bone.

X X X X X X X

Renji launched himself at the lead thug, knocking him over and sitting on his chest for long enough to look down, open his jaws wide so that the thug could get a good, long, hard look at all of Renji's very large, sharp teeth... and then he roared his loudest and most terrifying roar directly into the thugs gratifyingly terrified face. It rumbled out from deep in his chest, echoing in his throat and howled past his teeth to force the thug who had foolishly pointed a weapon at his Rukia to scream in abject, instinctive terror.

Roar over and done with (and point made) Renji bounced once on the man's chest, cracking a rib with his weight, and moved onto the next hapless soul. One of the men had not paused to watch as Renji terrified his leader, but had instead made directly for Rukia, club swinging. Renji launched himself like an attack dog at the man's wrist, wrenched the arm back, causing the man's body to swing around in a short jerking motion. Renji tugged again and brought him stumbling to his knees and a third wrench in the other direction pulled the man's arm from his socket, a violent snap crushed the bone of his forearm. The man let out a satisfying scream of pain and didn't get up from his position curled round his broken arm. Renji had already discounted his defeated foe, however and had shifted his attention to his next target. Rukia had edged backward against a nearby booth with their days earnings clasped tight against her chest, and the two remaining thugs were circling in on her, regardless of what happened to their companions. Renji growled low in his throat, crouched low to the ground and sprang at the back of the nearest, aggressively knocking him down from behind. He debated the momentary satisfaction he might get from ripping his throat out then and there as a warning to anyone else who might decide to try and mess with him, but decided that Rukia would scold him if she had to wash all that blood from his fur again. Instead he pulled back one of his paws and slammed it into the back of his head, sending the man's face into the packed earth of the street.

The last thug actually managed to reach Rukia and scooped her up, holding her in a pin-lock in front of him with a knife to her throat. Renji felt the rage rise up within him and a strange haze of red stole over his vision. He snarled as the little voice inside him whispered _kill, kill, kill_... The pain-filled whimper Rukia let out when the man twisted her arm too hard nearly made him loose it, only the fear of Rukia repudiating him made him control the beast within. He crouched down to spring, snarling his most menacing growl.

He heard a woman's voice in the crowd gasp Rukia's name, but ignored it as he debated whether he should attack right away or not.

Rukia locked eyes with him and surreptitiously gave him a signal. He understood and snorted once to signal his acquiescence to her command. Renji shifted his weight and stance, waiting for the right moment.

"Now!" she shouted.

She brought her foot down hard on her captors instep, Renji sprung forward at the exact same moment, knocking the thug over and gripping the bottom edge of the mans yukata jerking it upwards and over, bringing it up to both blind and entangle the man in his own clothes. He lowered his body down and Rukia grabbed one of the hand loops on his harness, and, in a motion made fluid from a great deal of practice, pulled herself up onto his back and gripped with her knees. Renji took that as the signal it was, pivoted on his hind legs and sprang forward to gallop at his top speed back the way they had come. The lead-thug had got his wits about him and managed to pull himself to his feet with his sword out. Rukia gave a signaling tug, and, nothing loath, Renji added insult to injury by barreling past him and knocking the thug into a nearby mud-puddle.

He delighted in Rukia's laughter as he charged off with her on his back, her small hands gripped tight in his mane. The sun and wind were fresh and wonderful and he felt powerful and strong and protective as he made good thier escape. Renji loved moments like these, they reminded him that though there were a great many disadvantages to his current form, he wouldn't be able to do _this_ if he were still Human. He wouldn't be able to protect Rukia the way he should if he were weak.

He ignored the voices of the people calling out after them, one of them, unaccountably was a woman. He heard the patter of running feet, trying to chase him, but Renji was not only strong but fast, and had made it a point to be able to make a fast getaway when they needed one. He turned in the direction of the river and poured on more speed. The ground felt solid and delightful under him as his feet pounded in a rhythm, carrying them farther away to safety.

X X X X X X X X

Byakuya Kuchiki watched in mystification as the scene unfolded. He had been prepared to defend innocent bystanders against a rampaging Hollow only to discover that the Hollow seemed to be confining its attacks only to people who offended it. Hisana suddenly gripped his arm excitedly, and surged forward.

"That's her!" she gasped. "That's Rukia! Byakuya-sama, we've found her!"

Kuchiki caught his wife quickly around the waist before she could rush into the middle of the fray to snatch at the person she had searched so long and intently for. She would do it too, his wife was very determined, but the object of her quest was currently apparently the bone of contention between two stray dogs. One thug had her arm twisted up behind her and a long knife at her throat, and the dog that smelled of Hollow was crouched low, every muscle tense, apparently perfectly ready to spring at the both of them. It appeared to be an impasse, and Byakuya hesitated for a long moment as he judged the best angle to attack from in order to safely wipe out both threats. The Hollow was the more dangerous of the two and would be slain immediately, but the knife-wielder was closer... However, that one could at least be bribed. A Hollow listened to only one voice, the voice of its Hunger. It must be destroyed immediately.

Then there occurred something that he had never in all of his days thought he would see. The girl, Rukia, gave a signal and distracted the thug by stepping down hard on his foot and the Hollow used that moment of inattention to disable the attacker, ground him and then... she climbed up on the Hollow's back as easily as a trick-rider mounting a horse! The two of them raced off, the Hollow knocking aside anyone in its path as it went galumphing heavily down the street.

It took the Soul Reaper a long, staring moment as he was forced to adjust his world-view to accommodate the strange situation. For all of his training he had been told that Hollows were nothing more than mindless souls who had reversed themselves to a bestial state where the only sensation they had was hunger and the only thought they had was of assuaging that hunger by feasting upon any soul they could get their teeth on. That Hollow should have eaten them both. Any other Hollow that Byakuya had encountered would have eaten them both. But...

:_It's impossible_,: Byakuya thought to himself even as he raced after his wife, already chasing after the girl and her Hollow.

It had looked like the two of them were working together!

Hisana called after them and started off in pursuit while the three thugs that the Hollow had taken care of sprawled out behind them and called out curses at their backs. Byakuya sighed and went in pursuit of his wife. Two flash-steps and he was at her side. She was panting for breath, the Hollow and Rukia were already out of sight. There were tears in her eyes.

"Byakuya-sama," she cried. "I've lost her! I've lost her again..."

He dried her tears with the edge of his scarf and hastened to reassure her. He was a Soul Reaper, hunting Hollows was what he did. The beast and its burden would not remain lost to them for long. He scooped his wife up and blurred into the wind.

* * *

**End Part I.**

** I just love writing them, they're so fun and cute! Tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

Renji fell, panting from exertion, down by the river-bank and wondered if he would survive drinking the river water to cool his parched throat.

"Don't even think about it," Rukia warned him, catching his speculative gaze as she climbed off his back.

"Humph!" he scoffed. "I wasn't."

"Liar, and you remember what happened the last time you tried to drink the water, dummy," she said.

He'd been up all night with a stomachache and Rukia had had to nurse him for the following two days.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled.

"If you get sick, I'm not gonna coddle you again," she scolded him. "But since you're here anyway and we've made our take for the day..."

Renji caught her look and knew _exactly_ what it meant. Bath-time was what it meant. Renji lowered his head and planted his rear end down on the ground. When he'd been about her size, he'd been easy to bully and shove into doing what she wanted, but now he was a big, relatively healthy Hollow and he wasn't gonna take no bath. So there.

"Come on," she said, coming back with a wash-bucket, a bar of soap and a scrub-brush that still had most of it's bristles on it. "Into the water."

"It's cold," he said flatly, ears going back even as he shrunk down, wary by now of what else she'd think of to do with that brush.

Rukia was certainly not above using it as a cattle prod.

"Tough, you're all sweaty and covered in dirt and mud. Come on. Into the water you get, and we'll get you all nice and clean."

"I don't wanna," he mumbled.

"I didn't ask you if you wanna," Rukia said implacably.

Renji, having just gotten out of a fight with four older men who would have been twice his size if he'd still had his human form, was not in the mood to be bossed around by a pint-sized midget, no matter that she was his best friend and the star around which his universe revolved. He straightened on his haunches and bared his teeth in a menacing scowl.

X X X X X X X

Byakuya Kuchiki tracked the Hollow and its burden quite easily through the streets, as it had made no effort whatsoever to hide its distinctive spiritual presence. The Lieutenant of Thirteenth Squadron flashed along quickly with his wife carried safely in his arms, pausing only at intervals to ascertain a direction at a street turning. In moments they were outside of the main urban area and down on a peaceful riverbank with a culdesac of water nearby. He could smell the faint, lingering scent of woodsmoke and there was a string tied between two trees that had small yukata's about the right size for a small girl flapping in the wind and a make-shift lean-to out of branches for crude shelter off to the left of the water.

Curiouser, and curiouser.

"...on get in, and we'll get you all nice and clean," Byakuya heard the voice of a young girl piping in a stern, bossy tone.

She sounded like his wife cajoling a servant into doing an unpleasant task. Hisana gasped again in horror as the Hollow bared its teeth at Rukia. Hisana started forward to intervene and protect her little sister as she had not been able to do for many years even as Byakuya reached for his zanpaktou, prepared to strike at the creature and prevent the immanent attack on Hisana's sister. Hollows didn't threaten, they consumed.

He was already moving to kill it, when...

Bam! The girl took the business end of her scrub-brush on a stick and bopped the Hollow firmly on the nose with it. The Hollow whimpered in pain and buried its offended nose on the ground between his paws, whimpering and whining in pain. Rukia pointed firmly towards the nearby riverbank.

"March, mister!" she commanded firmly.

Byakuya Kuchiki had never actually stared at anything in open mouthed shock before, it was common and inelegant, but there was a first time for everything. He did stare in disbelief as the Hollow, tail tucked low and close to his body... _slunk_ off to the dreaded watering hole like a whipped pup! The girl followed after the furry creature with scrub-brush and soap and then proceeded to wash the beast. The poor bedraggled thing whined and howled in protest most piteously, but the girl was deaf to its pleas. The Hollow was firmly lathered with soap and made to rinse and then be washed again. After a third rinsing, Rukia ordered the beast out of the river, and Byakuya Kuchiki could have sworn he saw the Hollow give a large, open-mouthed canine grin as it shook all the water out of its fur vigorously... all over Rukia, who had managed to stay relatively dry throughout the bathing process.

"Renji!" Rukia yelled, irritatedly at the Hollow.

The Hollow gave a remarkably human-like laugh and thwacked her with its bony tail.

"You just make sure you stay outta the dirt, or I'm gonna give you a _real_ scrubbing!" she warned it.

At that moment the Hollow seemed to pick up the scent of strangers for it moved in a sudden lunging blur, surging in front of Rukia, looking for all the world like a massively enormous guard-dog as it lowered its muzzle, brought its bulk hunched up protectively and growled at the two of them. The array of teeth it showed them and the eyes that burned like embers were impressive... but so was the way that Rukia put her hand on its shoulder and pushed him down. The creature... _obeyed_! It backed down when she made a shushing noise, though not without a further growl and a look that could only be defined as suspicious. Rukia stuck close to the Hollow's side and looked over at the two of them.

Hisana broke the impasse.

"Hello there," she said, making a friendly, soothing motion towards Rukia while keeping a wary eye on her overly large, furry protector.

"You are... your name is Rukia, right?" Hisana said, barely keeping the hope and excitement from her voice.

Rukia eyed Hisana suspiciously.

"What's it to _you_?" she demanded.

The Hollow muzzled right over her shoulder, one large fore-paw wrapped protectively around her from the side. Byakuya couldn't believe his eyes, but it looked like the Hollow was not only restraining itself from eating the soul but was actually _loyal_ to Rukia.

"I know this is going to seem strange to you, but I've been looking for you for a long time," Hisana said.

"Who are you?" Rukia demanded suspiciously.

There was a long silence as Byakuya felt his wife brace herself for the difficult confrontation she knew was going to ensue.

"My name is Hisana, Rukia," she said, her voice a little unsteady. "And I am your sister."

Byakuya stood beside her and held her to his side to steady her in the interminable moment that Rukia stood there, staring at her heretofore unknown older sister in shock and disbelief.

"Impossible," Rukia said flatly. "I don't have any family. Renji is my only family."

The Hollow stared hard at them both, eased himself closer to Rukia, and snorted sharply.

"I-" Hisana, sobbed softly.

Byakuya took her hand in his, encouraging her to get through the hard truth.

"I'm sorry," Hisana sobbed. "Please forgive me..."

The Hollow growled as Rukia instinctively backed away when Hisana reached forward to touch her.

"I'm sorry," Hisana whispered again. "We... came to soul society together when you were just a tiny baby. Both of us had enough spiritual power to feel hunger in a place where there was almost no food to be had."

The suspicion on Rukia's face hardened.

"I tried to take care of you, but I was young myself and it was so hard. I-" Hisana swallowed around her tears and forced herself to continue. "I got scared. I was always fainting and you cried so much... I didn't know what to do. I got scared. I know it's no excuse, nothing can ever excuse it. I'm so sorry Rukia. Please."

"You _left_ her," the Hollow growled over Hisana's sobs.

It bared its teeth and snarled at Byakuya's wife.

"You... you abandoned her there when she was too small to take care of herself cuz you were too scared!"

The Hollow roared and Byakuya crouched into fighting stance, zanpaktou drawn. Hisana stepped between him and his prey.

"No, he's right," Hisana murmured. "I wasn't strong enough and that is my sin. I can never make right what I did, not really. I looked for you, Rukia, but when I went back, you were already gone. I've been searching for you ever since."

"Yeah, it sure _looks_ that way," the Hollow sneered.

He looked very obviously at Hisana and her husband with his coal bright eyes and the implication was immediately apparent. He was taking in their fine clothes, the kenseiken in Byakuya's hair, the scent of their fine soaps.

"I'll bet you-"

"Renji, stop!" Rukia hissed.

"But she-!" he protested.

"It doesn't matter," Rukia replied to whatever unspoken conversation was going on between the two of them.

Rukia turned slightly to the side and buried her face in the ruff of blood red fur around the Hollow's neck. The Hollow tucked her head under his chin and rumbled soothingly in his chest. Hisana took a deep breath.

"I met and fell in love with Byakuya-sama while I was searching for you," she said steadily. "But I never stopped looking, I swear to you that. And, now that I've found you, I want you to come with me. Rukia. Let me take you away from this place. Come with me to live in Seireitei. Let's be sisters again. Please, I want to try and make it right, I just want another chance, that's all. Please..."

Rukia looked over at them both with a frown.

"This is the only world I know," she said, clinging tighter to the Hollow.

"I want to take you to a better place," Hisana cajoled. "You can leave all of this behind. You'll have a soft, warm bed to sleep in every night, nice clothes, wonderful food. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Some of the stubbornness faded a little from her face as she listened to what her sister had to tell her, however, she didn't move a muscle from within the hollow's embrace. Her fists actually tightened a little in his fur. Byakuya Kuchiki was inwardly flabbergasted. Who in their right mind would actually want to stay in that place? He looked around him, wondering if he might have missed something in his first surveying sweep of their little campsite; some hidden cache of food and blankets, a bedroll tucked away out of sight, maybe a nice little hut disguised to look like something else, but found that he was not mistaken. Their make-shift little camp didn't even have a cook-pot over the fire, the garments hung on the line were so worn and threadbare that his cook wouldn't have used them for cleaning the floors with, their shelter was flimsy, they didn't even posses a sleep-roll, and their blanket (singular, he noted) was something sewn together of many other patched rags into something serviceable. What in the world was wrong with this girl? She was being offered a place and a lifestyle that was incalculably greater and better than what she had or would likely even dream of having in the world she knew then, and yet she clung to that flea-bitten mongrel like she was afraid of it. Clearly someone needed to speak sense to her.

"Young girl," he said clearly to her.

She looked up at him with those wide, indigo eyes and Byakuya suddenly felt a small pang as he looked down at her small cheeks and childlike form, he inadvertently had a vision of his and Hisana's own future children. It _did_ have the unintended effect of softening him a little towards her. Until now, the elusive Rukia who had taken up so much of his wife's time and attention had been a cause for concern and some small, jealous irritation on his part; Hisana spent so much time away from his home, from his arms, looking for her. Her attention always seemed to be partly someplace else, worried over this missing girl. Perhaps once the girl was safely ensconced in the Kuchiki manor, he might at last turn his wifes attention away from her missing family and start concentrating it on creating a family of her own, with _him_.

He cleared his throat and tried again.

"Rukia. You do not seem an unobservant, nor unintelligent girl. Look around you. It is summertime now and likely quite warm enough with food readily available, but think about when the winter comes. You have but one blanket that I can see. Your shelter is inadequate to withstand the harsher elements. Food is not nearly so plentiful, nor easy to purchase for people will be hording it for themselves. You will scarcely be able to feed yourself, and that beast looks like he eats a lot. Hollows are not known for their self-restraint, girl. You play with fire if you think otherwise."

"We'll get by same as we always have," Rukia replied with proud stubbornness. "We got a place we sleep in the winter with a real roof an' all, Renji can ice-fish as long as I'm there ta chip a hole for him, an' his fur is nice an' warm so I don' need no other blanket. I got all I need right here." She tightened her arms around her Hollow and her expression turned distinctly mulish.

The Hollow looked down at her, shock and perplexity clearly written on his furry face.

"Are you _nuts_?" he demanded of her. "You ain't stayin'!"

"Sez who?" she shot back.

"Sez me!" the Hollow replied. "The ol' geezer's right, you can't stay here come winter. Ya gotta go with 'em Rukia, it's what's best for you."

"Who died an' made you head o' th' gang?" she retorted.

"Tch!" the Hollow snorted at her. "Ya got a fam'ly here waitin' for ya, what're ya doin' hangin' around me for? Go eat the good food an' get nice clothes ya stupid girl!"

Byakuya refrained from stating that the Hollow was speaking sense, no matter how atrocious his grammar.

"What about you, Renji?" Rukia asked next.

"Whaddaya mean, dummy?" he replied.

"Who's gonna take care of you if I don't? No-one else'll come near you-"

"That's cuz I'm big and tough and scary!" he said, puffing his chest out proudly, and baring his teeth fiercely. "Tch! Who needs _you_!" the boy-Hollow said scornfully.

"_You_ need me," Rukia said stubbornly. "Who's gonna cook your food, and make camp, and light fires for you? Who's gonna scale your fish and skin your catches? Who gonna make sure you bathe and scrub down that thick fur of yours? How're you gonna get money an' pay fer things without me?"

"I'll manage," the hollow said, though Byakuya caught the note of uncertainty in his voice. "I'm tough, I always land on my feet. You go on an' get the hell outta this hell-hole."

"Watch your language," Rukia scolded.

"I'll say what I want," he bickered. "An' don't change the subject. Now git!"

The Hollow tried to extricate himself from her grasp, even though he was displaying all the tell-tale signs of a pup in absolute _misery_. His ears were flat to his head and his tail was curled in close to his body. His remarkably human-like eyes (it seemed they only glowed when he was excited, the rest of the time they became a very normal puppy-brown with just a hint of cinnamon around the edges) even looked like they were starting to well up with tears. Rukia clung on even tighter.

"No! I ain't goin' no-where without you. You _promised_!" she howled. "You promised we were gonna be together always! You said you'd always take care of me. You did!"

"Well now there's someone who can take better care of you, stupid girl," the Hollow snapped, trying to forcibly shake her off. "Now stop bein' so dumb and just go with them."

"You can't make me!" she yelled, showing all the classic signs of a girl working herself up into a temper.

Byakuya was very much afraid he might have to wade in there and separate the two of them forcibly.

"The hell I can't," the Hollow replied. "You just watch me."

"I'd like to see you try!" Rukia threw herself up onto his back again and dug her hands and legs in, by all appearances quite ready and willing to cling to him like a tick.

"Get off me, ya little monkey!" he snapped as he wriggled around, trying to dislodge her, clearly without hurting her in the process. "Now I'm doin' this fer yer own good so be grateful dammit!"

"I won't go!" she yelled. "I don't know those people, they could be lying."

"You know anyone in this district that's got fancy clothes like those two do, ya stupid girl? This is yer ticket outta here."

"I don't care about tickets or whatever, you should listen ta me!"

"Your opinion is rejected," the Hollow said. "You just get on over there an' thank 'em fer givin' you a chance atta better life!"

"_You_ thank 'em!" she snapped at him as they continued to fight. "An' leave me out of it."

Byakuya and Hisana watched in perplexed amazement as the two of them wrestled around in the dirt, bickering like a couple of school children.

"It looks like they do this often," Hisana remarked to him, sotto voce.

"She's quite good at this," Byakuya replied. "It looks like she will not require lessons in equestrianism."

The Hollow at last managed and plunging twist that got her most of the way off his back. The girl cleverly pulled a fake and yelled

"Owowowow! Ow! It hurts!"

The Hollow froze immediately and looked up and back at her, face half-panicked despite the fur.

"Where's it hurt?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

Rukia grinned triumphantly and twisted back into place, grabbing a handful of mane in one hand, and an ear in the other. She twisted the ear, bringing a Hollow the size of a grizzly bear cowering to his knees at her feet.

"Hey! That's cheating," the Hollow whined trying unsuccessfully to escape her painful grip.

"Now who's the dumb one?" she replied haughtily. "You're gonna listen ta me now, cuz i gotcher ear!"

"Brat!" he growled fully prepared to put up a fight again, ear or no.

Rukia reached up under his chin at a spot hidden in the ruff on his neck that looked nearly impossible to reach otherwise and proceeded to scratch vigorously. The fight drained out of him like water from a sieve. The Hollow-dog went cross-eyed with happiness, his tongue lolled out one side of his mouth and his tail wagged vigorously. His expression looked so comically silly that Hisana giggled.

"Who's going to scratch your itchy spot if I don't," Rukia said in a tone that indicated she'd just won the argument.

"Wow," Hisana murmured to her husband, still giggling.

Byakuya nodded agreement on two counts; first, they could clearly tell who the _real_ power in the relationship was, and second, that she hadn't even reached puberty yet and she already knew her way around the "man" in her life.

"Why can't we stay together?" she persisted.

"Stupid girl," he murmured, halfheartedly even as he sighed in contentment. "You gotta go with them. You heard her, you'll get a warm place to sleep and as much as you want to eat. Plus, that woman sez she's yer sister, ya always wanted a sister, right?"

His mouth was saying the words but his body-language was saying another thing entirely. He was all curled up around her, leaning into her scratches, tail thumping loudly on the ground. His muzzle was buried in her lap, chest rumbling a sound that resembled a purr. His paws were wrapped around her as if to keep her in place and never let her go.

"I guess," she said dubiously.

The hollow-dog resolutely sat up and looked her in the face.

"Yer gonna have a good life, Rukia," he said seriously as he tried to push himself away and nose her toward where he family and new life were waiting for her. "I want you to go."

"You don't really want me to leave... do you?" Rukia asked hopefully.

The hollow-dog was clearly trying to put on a brave front, but he looked so pathetically miserable. His eyes were sad and pitiably pleading, his tail was tucked in close, his ears down and his shoulders hunched and shaking. His resonant hollow-voice sounded more like a little boy on the verge of tears than a monster. There was just a slight tone of puppy whine at the edge of his voice as he lied

"I sure am jealous, ya made it big! Just think of all that good food yer gonna eat and those pretty clothes. You like pretty clothes Rukia. And a warm bed too..."

The Hollow's voice cracked and he tried to cover it by snorting out a pretend-sneeze.

Byakuya began to reassess the Hollow before him and see it not as the beast that he spent a great deal of his time destroying, but as being closer to the human that the Hollow sprang from. In terms of human years, the creature sounded like it was a child still.

"I got a warm bed," Rukia argued, sounding like she was going to start crying. "And don't you dare try ta lie ta me, Renji. Yer a terrible liar and I know you too well fer that. Lookit you, yer all bunched up and yer tail ain't waggin'. Yer the dumb one if ya think I can't see that."

"I ain't the dumb one, you are," the Hollow-child bickered back, exactly like a child. "Especially if yer thinkin' about stayin' out here in this dump when you could go inside the seireitei and have everything you could possibly want. Dumbass."

"I said watch yer language," Rukia tweaked him primly on the ear and he gave a half-hearted little snap that didn't have any real teeth behind it. "And you're the dumb one."

"Nuh-uh, you are," the hollow argued.

"No you," Rukia argued back.

"This could go on for days, _do_ _something_," Byakuya muttered to his wife.

He was not prepared to stand there and listen to two children bicker and fight like... well, two children bickering.

"Yer dumb times infinity," Renji siad, clearly thininkg he'd won.

"Well yer dumb times infinity plus one!" Rukia promptly topped him with.

Renji clearly had enough of the argument for he suddenly moved to his feet, shouldered Rukia off balance so she leaned forward, windmilling her arms in an attempt to steady herself, and then caught her by the worn sash at her waist that held her ragged little yukata closed.

"Hey!" she protested.

Renji pulled himself up to his full height and then picked her up off the ground completely, holding her by her waist in the same way that a mama cat would pick up a kitten. Rukia dangled from his mouth like a toy and he trotted primly over to where Hisana and her husband stood, even as Rukia struggled to escape.

"Renji! Hey! Put me down you stupid mutt! What're ya doin'? Hey! I said put me-"

The hollow-dog complied with her request, giving her a small swinging toss to land her in the dust at Hisana and Byakuya's feet. Despite the humor of the situation as Rukia patted her offended rear and glared back at her protector, there was a heartrendingly sad look on the hollow-dog's face as he resolutely turned his back and prepared to leave behind someone he very obviously shared a close bond with, for her own sake.

Hollows were not capable of self-sacrifice. It flew in the face of everything that Byakuya had learned about them, and yet, there it was. The hollow-dog was whining piteously, possibly the closest thing he could get to crying, as he forced himself to walk away.

"Wait, little one," Hisana said to the Hollow's back, stepping forward by instinct.

Byakuya closed his eyes and dreaded what he knew was bound to happen next.

"Whatcha want?" the beast demanded in a surly tone.

If things went the way Byakuya had a sinking feeling they were going to go, he would have to have a discussion with the beast about its manner of address.

"It looks like you've been taking care of my Rukia all this time that I've been looking for her," Hisana said inching warily closer to the dog who had paused with its back still turned, supressing miserable noises in an attempt to mainting its dignity. "I worried about her every day and night, but I can see by looking at you I needen't have. It takes a lot off my mind to know that she's had someone who cares about her looking out for her all this time."

"I din't do it fer you, woman," the Hollow growled. "I did it fer Rukia. Ain't got nuthin' ta do wit' you. Now if ya don' mind, now that ya found 'er and kin take 'er in an' raise 'er proper, I got things ta do."

Despite his size and shape, Byakuya Kuchiki could clearly hear the voice of a little boy under that Hollow-resonance. The Hollow's voice was a childs high piping that had been purposefully lowered, clearly trying to sound deeper and more mature. The tone was of studied nonchalance, but any adult could hear the deep sorrow being covered up by bravado in it.

"What kind of things?" Hisana questioned gently, advancing just a tiny bit.

"Hollow things," the boy muttered resentfully, pawing in a circle in the dirt with his fore-paw like any little boy being gently interrogated.

"Like what?" Hisana pursued, her tone still gentle and kind, but implacable.

"Y'know..." the Hollow-boy mumbled. "Hollow stuff... like uh, catching fish and uh, little bunnies an' stuff! Big, _scary_ hollow stuff."

Byakua Kuchiki very nearly snorted for the first time in his life. The pup considered chasing rabbits and catching fish to be "big, scary Hollow stuff." The only creatures that Hollows ever chased after and caught all ran on two legs.

"Oh my, how very fearsome," Hisana agreed, trying to force herself to sound suitably impressed.

"That's right," the Hollow said, straightening a little bit and puffing out his chest proudly.

Hisana was working her magic. Soon enough the beast would be rolling over for belly rubs.

"An' I got thugs ta beat up too! I can take on three at once," the Hollow said proudly, bragging in that way that all little boys did. "I already did once today an' maybe I'll just go do it again. Cuz I'm tough an' scary an' I don' need nobody!"

That last was clearly said for effect for little Rukia made a face at him.

"You do too need somebody!" Rukia interjected.

She turned to Hisana, clearly expecting her to agree with Rukia's side of the story.

"Renji can't make a fire, he doesn't have any hands!" Rukia said, clearly quite prepared to make a good counter argument. "He can't cut down trees or gather wood easy either, an' no matter how fierce he is, an' how well he can hunt down prey, he can't cook it! Without me he'll never bathe or buy and use that special shampoo we get from the laundry-granny that kills fleas. An' then he'll get all infested an' start scratchin'."

Rukia turned to the Hollow, hands on her hips, and brought her nose to his.

"You remember that infestation you got that one winter when you wanted to go hunt down that wolf, don't you? You remember how bad it itched."

In reply, the hollow made a soft groan and sunk its head between its paws, wriggling a little, apparently in visceral memory.

"My goodness," Hisana said, exchanging a covert wink with her little sister.

The two females had joined forces to bring down larger prey. Some things were universal. Still if this was something that would work toward healing the rift in their relationship, then Byakuya was cautiously for it. Besides that, Hisana had clearly already decided upon what would happen, and if Byakuya played his cards right this could be advantageous for him in a number of ways.

"We wouldn't want that, it sounds terrible," Hisana continued, gamely playing along with her younger sister.

:_And so it begins_,: Byakuya thought in resignation.

"I don't see how we have any other choice," Hisana said with a fake helpless shrug. "I guess he'll just have to come with us. We can't just leave him out here; and having Byakuya-sama _do his job_ would be a poor way to repay this boy's kindness and care toward a member of my family."

That last had been meant for her husband, he was sure of it. Rukia's face lit up at the news that her little hollow-friend would be coming with her. The Hollow however looked flatly at the woman, clearly disbelieving that his wife would do any such thing. A hard life in runkongai with very little in the way of kindness from anyone besides the person he had attached himself to had hardened him against the thought that any good fortune could possibly befall him. In all probabilty, Rukia was the only peice of unalloyed good thing in his world and even then, the Hollow dog seemed stoicly resigned to the idea that she would be moving on without him as well. Byakuya could almost see the creature thinking "well, I knew this had to happen sooner or later because it was just too good to be true."

"I don't know iffen ya noticed _chikadee_, but I'm not really something that'll go unnoticed paradin' through that gate o' yours," the Hollow pointed out with surprising logic. "I'm pretty sure that that Seireitei o' yers is fer _killin_' critters like me. I don' think they'd up an' invite me in jus' cuz ya asked 'em to."

"Hmmm," Hisana said, tilting her head to the side and tapping her chin. "I don't see any Hollows here, do you Byakuya-sama?"

His wife was going to get him fired.

:_Still_...:

Kuchiki looked down at the dog-shaped Hollow consideringly. It was not outside of the realm of possibility that they might pull it off. The Hollow was entirely covered in fur, even what should have been the bone-mask was obscured by a thin layer of top-fuzz that puffed out over its eyes and muzzle, the edges of it were entirely covered by that red ruff of fur around its neck. It was certainly larger than most dogs that he had encountered, but the nobility was well-known for breeding enormous mastiff and rachet-hounds for hunting... Byakuya could simply say, if anyone were to ask, that he had come across a prime breeding specimen and added him to his kennels.

"I see a very large mastiff," Byakuya Kuchiki said with stiff resignation.

A mastiff would be best. They were known for their size. In addition, it would be entirely expected that the beast would follow Rukia wherever she went, well trained and obedient, because mastiffs were guard-dogs, protectors of their masters and mistresses.

Rukia gave a joyous cry at her new brother-in-law's pronouncement and threw her arms around the Hollow's neck.

It was clearly essential to first lay a few ground rules.

"Even in a noble house, an animal is expected to earn it's keep," the Head of Clan Kuchiki said as he looked down his patrician nose at his newest "acquisition."

"If the beast is to be fed and given a place to sleep then it will be expected to obey the comands of the master and mistress and to guard and protect its assigned person's life until the last drop of its own," the Kuchiki said.

He said all of this ostensibly to Rukia, setting the pattern for her lovable new pet's future behavior if this silly charade was really going to continue, but the words were meant for the hollow-dog.

"A guard-dog is expected to _act_ like a guard dog, and should not display any _un-guard-dog-like_ _tendencies_ where anyone can see and remark upon them."

Rukia and the hollow exchanged a long look, holding a mysterious and silent conversation. The dog sighed after a long moment, sounding resigned, and Rukia smiled smugly, pleased at having won. She clamored onto the beasts back again and the new happy little family started on its way back to their home.

Finis

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